The Feed is the community's live stream — short updates, newly published work, and the day-to-day activity of everyone on Fiction Factory. It's public, so anyone can read it.
Finding the feed
- Feed in the top navigation, on desktop and mobile.
- Feed in the site footer.
- From the homepage Your Desk panel, click Open the feed.
- On a member's profile, the See all N → link beside their Updates opens a feed filtered to just that member.
The page is headed The Commons and opens on everyone's activity, newest first.
What's in the feed
The stream is made of cards (3). Use the scope switch (1) and the kind chips (2) to narrow it.
| Card | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Update | A short post someone wrote |
| Story / Book / Chapter | Newly published work |
| Beta Read | An author looking for volunteers to read ahead (see Books) |
| Follow | Social activity |
| Honour / Level / New member | Progress milestones |
| Purchase / Sale | A private ledger row only you can see |
Likes and comments don't get cards of their own. When someone likes or comments on a post, the post itself moves back to the top of the feed — carrying the new like count, or the new comment shown beneath it. Mentions notify the person mentioned, but no longer get their own "X mentioned Y" line in the stream.
A Story or Chapter card can also carry a Reader Bounty badge (the author staked XP for the first few readers) and, for a chapter, a dot-progress indicator showing where it sits in the book plus a Follow this serial button. If people are discussing that chapter, a "N people are discussing Chapter X" row links straight into the conversation. See Books & Book Studio for all of this from the writer's side.
You don't need an account to read. You only need to sign in to post, like, comment or follow — guests see a Login prompt in place of the comment box.
Switching scope
At the top right of the feed:
- All — everything public, from everyone.
- Following — only the people you follow (plus your own activity). Sign in to use this tab.
Filtering by kind
The chips under the masthead narrow the stream to one kind of activity: Updates, Content, Social, or Progress. Click the highlighted chip again to clear the filter and see everything.
Social holds the activity that is an event in its own right — people following each other. Likes and comments are not here: they move the post they happened on instead, and a mention only shows up as a notification to the person mentioned, not a line in the stream.
Purchases and sales are private to each member, so they never appear in the public stream and have no filter chip.
Writing an update
An update is a short post — 2 to 500 characters.
- Sign in.
- Find the composer at the top of the feed (Your Desk, or Share a thought).
- Type your note and click Post.
Your update appears at the top of the feed and on your profile. A character counter appears as you near the limit, and posting is blocked past 500 characters.
On desktop, scroll past the composer and it docks into the left rail so it's always within reach; on mobile, a floating compose button opens it instead.
You can also post from the homepage — the Your Desk panel there has the same composer under Say something.
First time here? The First-update tour walks you through writing, mentioning, referencing and posting. Start it from the First-update tour button above the composer, or the Feed tour link at the top of the feed page.
Mentioning someone
(1) Type @ and pick a member from the list, or click the Mention button to start. Keep typing to narrow the results (Bengali names are supported). The person you mention is notified.
Referencing a story, book or chapter
(2) Type /ref (or click the Reference button) and type at least two characters to search published stories, books and chapters. Choosing one drops in a linked chip, so readers can jump straight to the work.
In both menus use ↑ / ↓ to move, Enter to choose, and Esc to close. Pasted text is always plain — no formatting comes along with it.
Liking
(1) Click the like button under an update or a story. The count updates immediately, the item moves back to the top of the feed, and the author is notified — unless it's your own post.
A like is never a post of its own, so you won't see "Someone liked …" lines in the feed — just the item, back at the top with its updated count.
Commenting
(2) Comments live in a drawer under each update and story. Click the comment count to open it.
When you comment, the item moves back to the top of the feed with your comment shown beneath it, so readers see what was actually said rather than a "commented on …" line.
- Anyone can read; signed-in members can comment (2–500 characters).
- (3) Reply under a comment opens an inline reply box, and replies indent beneath their comment.
- (4) The post's author is marked with an Author chip, and each person's level badge appears beside their name.
- View full conversation → at the bottom of the drawer opens the item's own page with the conversation already expanded.
- You can delete your own comment; moderators can remove anyone's.
Comment spam is filtered automatically, just like other comments on the site — see Comments for what gets hidden and why.
Privacy
Every feed row is one of three visibility states:
- Public — shown to everyone.
- Followers — shown to you and the people who follow you.
- Private — only you. Purchases and sales are always private.
A Followers or Private badge marks rows that aren't public. An item's
permalink (/feed/{id}) returns "not found" to anyone who isn't allowed to see
it.
Quick actions
- Follow a writer straight from their update card with the small follow button.
- Follow this serial on a chapter card to follow just that book — you'll be notified on its next new chapter, separately from following the author.
- Volunteer on a Beta Read card to offer to read ahead and give feedback.
- Click any name or avatar to open that member's profile.
- Click a story or book card to read it.
While you're signed in
The Your Desk rail sits beside the feed with:
- Your avatar, level and XP progress bar.
- The update composer.
- Currently Reading — where you left off in every book you're reading, each with a progress bar toward the end of that book.
- Your reading streak — starts the day you read anything, shown as a progress bar toward a first full week.
- Your Items sold and Items bought totals.
On the homepage, the Your Desk panel shows the same feed as a short stream of the writers you follow. It refreshes every few seconds while you're active, and pauses after five minutes of inactivity — when that happens, click Refresh feed to start it again.
Loading more
The feed loads a batch at a time and fetches more automatically as you scroll to the bottom — there's no numbered pagination to click through.
See also
- Comments — commenting rules and safe links
- Notifications — mentions, likes and comments in your inbox
- Achievements & XP — what the Honour and Level rows mean, and how Reader Bounty spends XP
- Books & Book Studio — following a serial, beta reads and chapter bounties